Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., Thursday morning, President Obama made a compelling case for something terribly unusual: Humble faith. Historically, Obama has been reticent to speak at length publicly about his Christian faith and has subsequently come under intense scrutiny by those who would seek to disprove his professed beliefs. During the prayer breakfast, the president gave more than just a glimpse into his spiritual life, detailing the how, when and what of his daily prayer... Read more

Last year, for the first time in its 57 years of existence, angry protests greeted the seemingly innocuous National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., an event that has been attended by every sitting president since Dwight D. Eisenhower — including Barack Obama. This year’s Prayer Breakfast, scheduled for Thursday morning, will convene under a disturbing pall cast by the Jan. 26 murder of David Kato, a well-known gay activist who was bludgeoned to death in his home in Kampala. Earlier... Read more

    Earlier this month, the Parents Television Council asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate whether Skins, an MTV remake of an award-winning British drama about high school kids, constitutes child pornography for its use of underage actors in highly sexualized scenarios.   I’m no fan of censorship, and the PTC historically has veered into histrionic territory with its protestations of shows such as That 70’s Show, Will and Grace and Dawson’s Creek. Yet when it comes to MTV’s... Read more

As HBO’s “Big Love” heads into its fifth and final season, series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer are turning their attention back to the bread-and-butter themes that have made their show so compelling: faith and family. Gone are the non sequitur plot turns of last year’s frenetic season (that included, improbably, black market parrot trading, eugenics, and Native American casino gambling). The soul of “Big Love” has always dwelled in the living room(s) of the fictional Henrickson family,... Read more

When Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker‘s PTL ministry and Heritage USA theme park crashed and burned in the 1980s, their son Jay was sent into a dizzying downward spiral of drugs, alcohol and running from God. Now the pastor of Revolution NYC, an alternative church in Brooklyn, N.Y., Jay Bakker’s new book, Fall to Grace probes the power of God’s grace to “revolutionize” believers’ relationships with God, each other and larger society. Most provocatively, Bakker makes the case that homosexuality... Read more